How Has Music Changed Since the 1950s? A Statistical Analysis

🌈 Abstract

The article explores how music composition and the music industry have evolved since the 1950s, analyzing changes in song duration, danceability, instrumentality, and positivity using data from the Billboard Hot 100 and Spotify song attributes.

🙋 Q&A

[01] How Has Music Changed Since the 1950s? A Statistical Analysis

1. How has music composition evolved over time?

• The article traces the evolution of music publishing and distribution, from the dominance of sheet music in the 1400s to the rise of streaming platforms like Spotify in the 2000s.
• It analyzes changes in popular music over the last seven decades, using data on song duration, danceability, instrumentality, and positivity.

2. How has the length of popular music changed?

• Song duration increased in the 1980s and early 1990s, as records and cassettes were the predominant formats and music videos encouraged longer, more cinematic tracks.
• However, song length began to decline in the late 1990s, likely due to the rise of iTunes and streaming services, which incentivized shorter, more commercially viable individual tracks over cohesive album concepts.

3. Has music become more or less danceable over time?

• According to Spotify's "danceability" metric, popular music has become increasingly danceable over time.
• Potential drivers include recency bias in Spotify's scoring algorithm, the increased importance of live music and dance-oriented genres like hip-hop and EDM, and the industrialization of music production.

4. Has the prevalence of instrumentals declined?

• Spotify's "instrumentalness" and "speechiness" scores indicate that unaccompanied instrumentals have become less prevalent over the past 30 years, while lyric-driven music has become more common.
• This may reflect the declining influence of rock music and the growing cultural dominance of rap.

5. Has music become less positive over time?

• The article's analysis of Spotify's "valence" (song positivity) score shows a continuous decline in music positivity over time.
• However, the author argues that this may not necessarily be a negative trend, as it could reflect a shift towards music that better reflects the complexities of modern life, rather than the overly positive media of the 1950s or the euphoric dance jams of the 1970s.

[02] Final Thoughts: The Ever-Changing Medium and Ever-Responding Message

• The article discusses Marshall McLuhan's concept of the "medium is the message," where technological progress shapes and controls human interaction, not just the content distributed through new platforms.
• Streaming has democratized music distribution and given artists more control, but has also organized the industry around a recurring $10 subscription model.
• The article uses the example of Vulfpeck's "Sleepify" album, a silent album that exploited Spotify's business model, as an example of how artists are adapting to the new streaming landscape.